Huge new Hindu school planned for Hounslow

Avanti West School would be run by the trust behind Avanti House School (pictured), in Stanmore

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A huge new Hindu school could open in Hounslow, under plans announced this week.

The Avanti Schools Trust wants to open an all-through school in the borough, for pupils aged four to 18, in September 2016.

Avanti West School would be Hindu 'faith designated', meaning there would be Hindu prayers and religious studies, a vegetarian menu and yoga meditation. However, it would accept pupils of all faiths and backgrounds, and would be mixed sex.

Nitesh Gor, chief exective of the trust, said: "We respond to community demand for places. There's been a long-standing, overwhelming demand from the local community for a Hindu school.

"It would be only the second or third in the country as far as secondary schools are concerned and the first in west London."

Subject to approval from the Department for Education, the school will open next year with two reception classes and six forms of entry in year seven - the start of secondary school. It will then expand each year until reaching its full capacity of 1,680 students in 2023.

The trust already runs three other schools, including Avanti House in Stanmore, which was the UK's first state-funded secondary school when it opened in 2012.

It said it was currently developing its application and expected to be able to announce this autumn whether it had been successful.

The trust has identified a prospective site for the new school but would not say at this stage where in the borough that is.

According to the 2011 Census, Hounslow is home to 26,261 Hindus, accounting for just over 10% of the borough's population. It is the borough's third biggest religion, behind Christianity and Islam, and just ahead of Sikhism.

The Green School, an all-girls Church of England secondary school in Isleworth, got permission in March to open a boys school in the borough. It was one of three new secondary free schools across Hounslow to be approved that month.

For more details of the proposed new Avanti West School, and to register an interest in your child attending, visit www.avanti.org.uk/avantiwest.